The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1887-07-21
AWFUL.
A Foul and Most Devilish Crime
1.-Two Young Ladies Fatally
Wounded.
A Villain Enters their Sleeping
Room and Uses Ratchet
Estate Items.
spsc,al Telegram to the Statesman.


of Dallas, who was here on visit to her
aunt, Mrs. Willis, but who was spending
the night with Miss Bostick, retired to
slumber. Captain Bostick, the head of
the family was absent in the Indian Ter
ritory, looking after his cattle interests
there. About O'Clock this morning Mrs.
Bostick wrs awakened by the noise of
struggle in the room, occupied by the
young ladies. She went to the door of
the young ladies' room just in time to
see the form of a man jump through the
window, and upon the bed lay her
daughter and Miss Watkins weltering in
their blood.
4. The bright moonlight which flooded
the whole apartment revealed
gaping wound upon the faces of both
girls. Mrs. Bostick began to scream i'm
mediately, and her cries soon brought
several of her neighbors to the house.
Miss Watkins was struck over the right
eye with some sharp instrument-thought
by some to have been very large and
heavy butcher knife, but generally be-
lieved to have been hatchet-and the
force of the blow of this instrument was
such as to penetrate both frontal bones.
The cash made by the instrument ex-
tends almost entirely acros the forehead,
and part of the brains oozed out, tea
poonful at least being taken up by
the doctors. Her right eye
was also driven from its
socket, and when she was discovered
it was lying upon her cheek, hanging only
by slight thread. One of her arms was
fearfully lacerated and bruised, and it is
supposed from this that she resisted to
he rutmost capacity the assault of the
murderer. Miss Bostick was wounded by
the same instrument IN several places.
One blow, which seems to have been IN
flicted by the corner of the weapon used,
was Just under the right eye. Another
blow struck the fight temple, and the
third cut the upper lip completely in two.
Physicians were at once summoned.
The wounds of Miss Watkins were pro-
nounced by them to be of a more danger
GUS character than those of Miss Bostick,
and to be almost necessarily
fatal. Miss Watkins death has
been expected every hour during
the day, but she clings on to life with
wonderful vitality. 1t was thought by the
physicians this afternoon that she was
growing weaker more rapidly than she did
during the morning, and that her death
will occur at some time during the night.
She vomited up considerable quantity of
blood.
Miss Bostick's wounds turn out to be
more dangerous than they were first
thought to be by the doctors. The blow
struck her on the temple fractured the
skull, and the wound is considered very
bad one. The blow that cut the lip
in two knocked out two of her upper
teeth, and Clipped the tips of two more
lower ones. The doctors now express the
belief that she will certainly recover. Miss
Bostick regained consciousness during
the forenoon far enough to ask where she
was, and being told that she was in her
mothers room, she wanted 10 know why
she was there instead of her own. Miss
Watkins has not been able to talk any dur
ing the day, but upon being asked by Mr..
Purdette,o of Dallas to whom she is engaged,
if she recognized him she signiied in
some way that she did. 1t is said that she
has tried several times during the day to
talk, but her efforts were unavailing.
The father of Miss Watkins, Capt. j. @.
Watkins, proprietor of the Watkins
House, in Dallas, was Immediately notified
by telegraph of the sad occurrence, and
he and Mrs. Watkins, accompanied by
Miss Watkins lover, Mr.. Purdette, also of
Dallas, came in this afternoon. Miss
Watkins is the only child of her parents,
and their grief of beholding the sad con-
dition of their daughter was woeful to be-
hold.
Mr.. Bostick has been telegraphed for,
and his arrival is expected at any time.
Dispatches to him were sent to Wichita
Falls and Henrietta, but as he may not
have returned from the Territory, it Is
uncertain whether the kilograms reached
him.
FURTHER PAhIlOUbAhbs
GAINESVILLE, July -. - The officers
were on the ground before daylight, and
Immediately began the work of ferreting
out the perpetrator or perpetrators of
the foul deed, but without result. A
subscription for a reward for the arrest
and conviction of the guilty ones was
started here this morning, and now foots
up over $4,000. The governor will be
asked to offer an additional thousand,
also. Our people are thoroughly aroused
and are determined that no stone shall be
left unturned to unravel the mystery and
punish the guilty parties. The hardest
thing to solve of the whole affair is the
motive for the crime. The man or men
who perpetrated the deed from all ap-
pearances were not actuated by lust, or a
desire to rob, but the most tangible theory
now presented, that can be sustained
by the facts of the case is that willful and
deliberate murder was the actuating cause
The young ladies did not have an enemy
in the world, as far as is known, and it i;
hard to see why their lives should have
been wanted; but, strange as it seems
blood seems TO have been the desire of
those who perpetrated the most cowardly
and atrocious crime ever committed II
Cooke county.
GAINESVILLE, July IA. The tragedy
of yesterday morning is still the all
ohsorhino fhema of conversation. Thl